After more than 30 years, R.E.M. decides to 'call it a day'

R.E.M. announced today that they have broken up after 31 years together. "As lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band," the band said in a statement on their official website. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished."

In just over three decades as a band, R.E.M. released 15 albums including landmark works such as "Murmur," "Reckoning," "Document," "Out of Time" and "Automatic For the People." The band's final album, "Collapse Into Now," was released in March of this year. The band have plans to release a career-spanning greatest hits collection later this year, which will include a handful of new songs finished after the band completed "Collapse Into Now."



Always loved their music, you couldn't find a club in the 80's where you didn't hear a REM song several times a night =)

My favorite band and this new is sad indeed I was hoping for a few more albums myself, but they have been around for a long time. I think it would had been better that they just "retire" but what can you do.

This makes me sad. I consider R.E.M. and Red Hot Chili Peppers to be our form of the "Led Zeppelin" kind of band...bands that stay together for a long time and put out a lot of good music. It's just not seen any more in the industry, really. Every band hits it big and suddenly all the members become convinced they can do much better on their own.

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Kind of interesting that Metallica has basically remained the same over 30 years and are still a big player in the music scene.

Uh, metallica hasn't remained the same AT ALL.

Or did you forget Load, Reload, S&M, and St. Anger? Even Death Magnetic sort of paled in comparison to Master of Puppets or And Justice For All.

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I assumed he was referring to the band members, not the music.

I really hated REM when I was younger and the music was coming out. I've learned to appreciate it of late, however.

Yeah, in comparison to Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightening, Master of Puppets, ..and Justice for All, and the "Black Album" the albums you listed (minus Death Magnetic) were weak. Load had one or two songs that get played in concerts these days. Re-Load not even that. Now that we are several years removed from St. Anger there are a few songs that I like from that disk but they are not crowd favorites. I really liked Death Magnetic (but I guess I am a Metallica fanboi).

I was not meaning to totally derail the thread, I was just saying that Metallica has stayed relevant and a top seller for over 30 years. Like them or not, you can't argue that when their albums since the Black Album have been released they start at the top of the charts. Even St. Anger's initial release was #1 in the charts (it didn't stay there long)

Aerosmith went 40 years with all the original members. They're in the Hall of Fame now.

Metallica has been around for a long time, but not that long -- and while Aerosmith's sound changed a little in that time, they shifted less in their whole careers than Metallica did between any two albums starting with Load.